Characterization of two HIV-1 strains with novel unique recombinant genome in Hebei, China.

In China, the proportion of HIV-1 infections due to men who have sex with men (MSM) has increased rapidly. More and more new subtypes are found among MSM populations besides known CRF01_AE, CRF07_BC, and B. The co-circulation of several HIV subtypes in the same population provides the opportunity to develop a new CRF and URF. Here we reported two new URFs from two HIV-1 positive subjects infected through homosexual contact in Hebei, China. Phylogenetic and recombinant analyses based on the near full-length genome (NFLG) of the two URFs are the second-generation recombinant strains originated from B, CRF01_AE, and CRF07_BC. The CRF01_AE segments in the genome of two URFs originated from cluster 4 of CRF01_AE strains, while The CRF07_BC segments were clustered with 07BC_N in the phylogenetic tree. The emergence of the novel CRF01_AE/CRF07_BC and CRF01_AE/B recombinant forms indicated the importance of the continuous monitoring of the HIV-1 epidemic and new URFs among the MSM populations.